Funded Projects

Applicant:

Dr. Nilufar Neyestani (TU/e); Dr. Nataly Bañol Arias (UTwente); Dr. Pedro P. Vergara (TU Delft); Dr. Tarek Alskaif (WUR)

Type of Funding:

Community Building

Proposal Summary:

The Dutch government has established energy policies such as the Dutch Climate Act and the National Climate Agreement to support the energy transition. These policies define directions to achieve CO2 emission reduction goals in five areas: electricity, transport, agriculture and land use, industry, and the built environment. This complex energy ecosystem requires a joint research effort from different energy sectors to provide innovative solutions to address the associated challenges. Digital Twins (DT) offer great potential to optimize energy systems and achieve sustainability goals. However, there is a lack of unified knowledge and alignment on this concept when targeting Dutch energy systems. To bridge this gap, we aim to bring together key stakeholders from the energy system (e.g., transmission and distribution system operators (TSO) and (DSO), companies, and knowledge institutions) and the ICT domain to share their experiences, challenges, and perspectives. With this Workshop series, the ICT and energy communities will gain deep insights into the underlying engineering and scientific challenges related to DTs for energy systems. This will enable them to identify the interplay (needs, connections, dependencies) across energy sectors and to develop holistic solutions to optimize and improve energy system performance with such DT models. In addition to enhancing system integration expertise for both communities, this Workshop series brings opportunities for collaboration on future DT-energy related research projects, fostering multidisciplinary collaboration with other key players, e.g., policymakers, regulators, and industry.

A workshop series (three in total, in 2025) will be organized to collectively reach a common understanding of DTs for energy systems and to identify the challenges in developing, implementing, and maturing such tools in the context of the Dutch energy transition. We aim to invite up to 50 guests with a balanced participation among academic institutions and industries and diversity in gender, background and seniority. And a final report with easy-to-understand infographics will be widely distributed.

Applicant:

NIRICT:

Dr. Aaron Ding (TU Delft), Prof. Kees Vuik (TU Delft), Dr. Alex Stefanov (TU Delft), Dr. Neil Yorke-Smith (TU Delft), Prof. Han la Poutré (TU Delft), Prof. Bert Zwart (TU/e), Prof. Valentin Robu (TU/e), Prof. Johann Hurink (UTwente), Prof. Nima Monshizadeh Naini (RUG)

Energy:

Prof. Peter Palensky (TU Delft), Dr. Jose Rueda-Torres (TU Delft), Dr. Jochen Cremer (TU Delft), Dr. Sergio Grammatico (TU Deflt), Prof. Koen Kok (TU/e), Dr. Phuong Nguyen (TU/e), Dr. Gerwin Hoogsteen (UTwente), Dr. Michele Cucuzzella (RUG)

Type of Funding:

Community Building

Proposal Summary:

Modern power systems, increasingly reliant on renewable energy sources, introduce a range of (cyber-)physical phenomena such as wide-area harmonics, sub-synchronous controller-based oscillations, and cascading failures. Traditional deterministic approaches are often insufficient to understand or control these dynamics fully.

Simultaneously, the ICT field has rapidly evolved, providing revolutionary tools such as AI and machine learning that can significantly enhance energy system analysis and management. These technologies allow for complex system modelling, predictive analytics, and real-time data processing, which are essential for addressing the dynamic challenges faced by modern energy systems.

By integrating the operational expertise of power engineers with the innovative capabilities of ICT professionals, digital twins can be developed as tools that mirror real-world energy systems in a virtual environment. However, realizing digital twins requires overcoming challenges related to data quality, computational capacity, and ICT infrastructure. 4TU is full of innovative researchers on energy and ICT, the two critical expertise needed to realize digital twins and other ICT technologies. The collaborative exploration of these technologies in workshops and symposiums will:

• Facilitate an exchange of ideas and research advancements within the Netherlands and globally, promoting a deeper understanding of existing and emerging ICT technologies for energy systems.

• Identify new industrial trends in energy systems and ICT that could accelerate the development and implementation of digital twins and other ICT technologies.

• Create new connections between the 4TU.NIRICT and 4TU.Energy communities and other partners, fostering opportunities for future collaboration.

The primary objective of this funding request is to organize a series of events that bring together experts from the energy systems and ICT domains to address current challenges in digital twins for energy systems.

• Symposium (approx. 100 participants): Keynote speeches by leaders in digital twin technology and renewable energy, panel discussions on current challenges and future directions and a networking event to facilitate further collaboration.

• Workshops (20-30 participants): Focused sessions on specific aspects of digital twins, such as integration with renewable energy sources, data handling and security, and the development of predictive models for system management.

This initiative will enable participants from diverse fields to become aware of the challenges and opportunities at the intersection of ICT and energy, potentially leading to groundbreaking solutions that leverage the strengths of both domains.

Applicant: 

Dr. H. Bazyar and G. Kontaxi (TUDelft), Dr. M. Rücker and G. Wensink (TU/e)

Type of Funding:

Rapid Research

Proposal Summary:

To limit global warming to 2°C with negative global CO2 emissions (on balance) by 2050, climate models indicate that negative emissions technologies (NETs) must be deployed to balance the emissions of different industries including energy sector. NETs are climate intervention technologies that remove CO2 from its sinks. Indirect ocean capture (IOC) is one of these technologies in which the ocean-atmosphere equilibrium is leveraged through controlling the pH of the seawater to extract the (dissolved) CO2. The carbon content of the oceans in the form of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) is 140 times greater by volume than the carbon in the atmosphere in the form of gaseous carbon. IOC enables returning CO2-free brine to the ocean for additional CO2 absorption from the air. The feed oceanwater needs to be analyzed thoroughly to determine the exact concentration and form of DIC. Currently, laboratorybased methods such as spectrophotometry are used to define DIC in oceanwater samples. For the IOC technology to be further implemented in various locations, the water samples (from input/output(s)) should be analyzed in real time.

With this study, we take the first steps in developing CO2-Responsive Etalon Membrane (CREM) for in-situ detection of DIC in oceanwater.

Applicant:

Dr. Yali Tang (TU/e), Dr. Sanli Faez (UU), and Dr. Maarten Voors (WUR)

Involved Partner: Eindhoven Institute for Renewable Energy Systems (EIRES)

Type of Funding:

Community Activity

Proposal Summary:

The most common renewable energy sources, solar and wind electricity, are intermittent. The storage of energy in batteries, is therefore an essential link in localizing and democratizing access to electricity.

The main objective of this activity is to stimulate researchers (including phd’s and postdocs) and student teams to work together on the battery technological development. The activity is a one-day workshop at Utrecht University (central located), gathering researchers and student teams working at 4TU in the field of batteries, as well as spin-offs together for knowledge exchange and networking. This workshop is followed by a FAIR battery challenge.

This event contributes to connect 4TU research community that work on batteries (all TRL levels) and to work with each other in the 4TU context on research proposals, attracting funding and stimulate cross collaboration between research and education.

Applicant:

Dr. P. Taheri (TUDelft), and Dr. D. Jafari (UTwente)

Type of Funding:

Rapid Research

Proposal Summary:

In this project, we hypothesize that 3D-printed porous microstructures with hierarchical surfaces and precise spatial control can enhance electrochemical performance. We believe that through-plane porosity gradients, interconnected low-tortuosity pores, and multimodal pore size distributions can increase current/power densities without sacrificing efficiency. These features provide larger surface areas and facilitate complex mass transport across multiple scales. 

Specifically, we have planned for (A) Initiate collaborative research on combining 3D printing with functional coating for new material synthesis. This platform offers enhancing key functions in electrochemical reactors, including thermodynamics, kinetics, and mass transport. (B) Evaluate novel materials for CO2 electrochemical conversion. This seed project aims to fundamentally understand the impact of electrode material architecture on overall faradaic efficiency, in particular mass transfer. Improved performance in synthesizing electrode materials is the ultimate goal, facilitated by the sophisticated control of the technique. (C) Building a scientific community on science and engineering of architected 3D printed materials for electrochemical systems, which would be unique in the Netherlands.

Applicant:

Dr. D. Giuntini (TU/e), and Dr. D. Jafari (UTwente)

Type of Funding:

Rapid Research

Proposal Summary:

This proposal is a creation of joint proof-of-concept research. This project aims to advance porous electrodes in metal-supported solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). Metal-supported SOFCs are promising for their fast startup, strength, and cost-effectiveness. It has become clear that this material design holds great promise for SOFC performance. Manufacturability issues are however currently hampering further developments. To address these, we propose integrating advanced sintering technologies and plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) coating. Tailored sintering allows tuning porosity gradients within the electrodes. PEO transforms the conductive substrate into an oxide layer through a high-voltage electrochemical process. We hypothesize that this integration can enhance both performance and durability of metal-supported SOFCs.

Applicant:

Dr. Congcong Sun (WUR), Prof. Eldert van Henten (WUR), Dr. Xiaodong Cheng (WUR), and Dr. Phuong Nguyen (TU/e)

Type of Funding:

Community Activity

Proposal Summary:

Two one-day workshops are expected to be planned, one in the second quarter and another in the fourth quarter of 2024. Each workshop expects between 50 to 100 attendees, with approximately 40% researchers (from 4TU or any other research centres in the Netherlands.), 40% stakeholders (from greenhouse technology companies like Priva, Signify, Philips; sustainable energy companies like Siemens, Schneider, Vattenfall, etc.) and 20% end users (e.g. greenhouse growers).

The workshops will start with plenary presentations to provide a general view of the current status of green energy usage in horticulture, the current challenges, the unsolved problems, the main needs, etc.. This will be followed by a few subsection discussions and plenary discussion sections. The first workshop expects to generate a report with the status, main technical and societal challenges of energy transition in horticulture, as well as a few potential solutions with a clear potential collaboration plans. The second one aims to update the progress planned in the first workshop, showcase results if there are any. Besides the results and reports generated from the workshops, we are also expecting follow-up proposals and projects, as well as regular workshops and activities organized based on the 4TU.Energy platform on this line.

Applicant:

Dr. Ir. Keerthivasan Rajamani (UTwente), Dr. Bijoy Bera (TUDelft)

Type of Funding:

Rapid Research

Proposal Summary:

The predominantly used heat pump technology is the vapor compression system which can reach up to 40 to 50% of the theoretical Carnot efficiency. Alternatively, magnetocaloric heat pump can reach up to 60% of Carnot efficiency. It works by altering magnetic field on certain materials (e.g. , Gadolinium) which induces temperature change in it. However, it has a high cost barrier. Specifically, it requires around 1-tesla magnetic field assembly, which is the most expensive component in the system, and it poses a bottleneck for their wide-spread adoption. To overcome such limitations, ionocaloric heat pump was proposed. It utilizes a salt with a changing ionic environment driven by an electrochemical field that causes temperature change. This involves repeated mixing and separation of the salt from the ionic-liquid which requires an electrical field of 1 volts8. This is relatively economical and easy to obtain when compared with 1 tesla magnetic field requirements. However, the separation suffers from the high membrane resistance which is detrimental to its performance. Therefore, there is a need for a heat pump with high energy efficiency with favorable operational requirements such as lower magnetic field and lower separation resistance.

To overcome the above-mentioned bottlenecks, a heat pump system is envisioned that utilizes magnetic-ionic liquid with a suitable salt. The electrochemical field changes are used to alter the melting point of the salt, while a relatively low-strength magnetic field (0.2 tesla), instead of membranes, is used for separation.

Applicant:

Dr. Tingting Zhu (UTwente), Dr. Dujuan Yang (TU/e), Dr. Aleksandra Lekic (TUDelft)

Type of Funding:

Community Activity

Proposal Summary:

The idea of this Energy Information Interaction Club (Energy IIC) is to bridge an information symmetry platform between the supply and demand sides of residential buildings, so that information on energy demand, changes, and fluctuations can be fed back to the multi-source hub with high time resolution, making the energy supply strategy and the integration mechanism between multiple energies more complete and accurate from holistic point of view. Research on "supply and demand in energy system integration" requires analyzing energy sources, storage, distribution, consumption patterns, demand response, efficiency, grid integration, technology, and economics impacts. This study needs energy engineers, environmental, and technology experts to address the technical, economic, and environmental aspects comprehensively. Starting from this research idea, we aim to build a joint research team with a complete “residential buildings energy system integration” research storyline. By organizing a Hackathon (on-site) on topics/projects followed by a workshop plus an online seminar afterward, this initiative aims to lay the groundwork for future cooperative projects and joint funding applications, thereby expanding and strengthening connections between 4TU researchers and potential industrial partners.